Entrepreneur: Excusing Lousy Management
by Miki Saxon
Grrrr. I hate it when bad human traits are excused based on career choice, position, etc.
A group of experienced small biz owners ranging from late thirties to late fifties described themselves thus, impatient, short on focus, easily frustrated, likely to jump in and solve a problem rather than count on the employee to do it; traits that have no place in good management (or leadership, if you prefer).
The more accurate analysis is captured in a comment citing similarities in the corporate world,
The top managers do delegate (maybe that’s how they get to the top) but the rest stick their noses into everything just like small business owners. Guess it is just human nature and the reason most people are not very good managers.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, manager, worker, parent, whatever, you were you. You possessed a certain MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and embodied certain traits and you took those with you into your career and wider life.
Extreme examples make this glaringly clear, although even these examples are changing,
- Cops who intimidate were bullies on the playground and sought a career in which bully MAP could flourish.
- Pedophile priests were pedophiles long before they became priests and gravitated to a profession with both access and protection.
Careers don’t create traits, although they often magnify them.
“That’s who I am” carries a second, unspoken thought, “so deal with it.”
But “who I am” is your choice, not mine, and there is no good reason why I have to deal with it.
